Learning On The Job
by Dreams of Shadows
Summary: JA series oneshot. Loki is nothing if not a good teacher, and so to make sure that Jess can use her magic in battle as well as she can in practice he went out and made a villain for her- isn't that nice.


"This is creepy," I commented as I peered at the illusionary clone I had finally been able to make. The clone peered back at me frowning, as no doubt I was whilst Loki sat back on the sofa and peered at us with a kind of lazy interest. I'd been trying at this for days, with all kinds of horrific results (Despite what Loki said, I think I preferred it when nothing showed up) and was very proud that I could now make a copy of myself. But it was still as creepy as hell.

You'll get used to it," said Loki dismissively, although I think he was actually secretly proud as well. He'd taken to this teaching thing instantly and seemingly enjoying doing this. It made me wonder if this was what Loki was like before he became an evil wannabe world-conqueror. "Now let us see if you can create more than one."

"But they're so creepy," I protested, glancing sideways at the copy who had folded her arms and in retaliation made her disappear in a flicker. I was seriously disturbed by the replica of me and it reminded me of some horror movie or something. So I wasn't all that eager to make even more copies and Loki pinched the bridge of his nose before getting up and striding over to me.

"One is quite useful when you want to trick the enemy into thinking that is the real you, allowing you to use the element of surprise to take down that enemy," he said, summoning up one of his own copies who stood behind him with that Loki grin on his face. "But in an open space that will not work so you will need to create multiple copies – so your enemy will not know which to target."

Suddenly I was surrounded by Loki's, all wearing the same grin. I held up my hands in defeat.

"Fine, I'll make more clones," I said dismissively, as though it was no big deal and I wasn't slightly put off by this. The copies began to disappear one by one. The one in front of me who had been the real Loki moments ago disappeared as well and as I reeled in surprise there was a chuckle from behind me. He placed his finger at the base of my spine and tutted.

"You may have talent when it comes to learning, but you are not so great when it comes to… practical uses," he said, and then moved around to stand in front of me. His eyes began to shine with mischief as he smirked, obviously coming up with some sort of idea that was bound to leave me in trouble. "Yes… I think you need a chance to use your skills in actual combat."

"Actual combat? I asked warily, and Loki noticed my discomfort.

"Oh, you won't be fighting me," he said, then chuckled. That was not a good sign. "We will need to find you a… more suitable opponent."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"We're going out," he replied, turning around and walking over to the door whilst I just looked after him in confusion. Opening the door, he turned to look at me and indicated for me to come with him. "I have prepared an opponent for you to do battle with."

"Of course you have," I said, rolling my eyes as I made to follow the god. But once I had approached him and stopped to turn to face him. "Won't somebody notice that I'm hanging out with a war criminal?"

He gave me a pointed look, offended that I'd even asked that, so I once again held up my hands in defence and walked out of the apartment as we headed out to face whatever opponent Loki had 'got' for me.

/

"You have got to be kidding me," I said with a snort, as Loki and I entered the warehouse to find our opponent searching through some of the contents of the crate (This was actually Stark Industries/Enterprise/whatever they called themselves now property- coincidence? I think not!) and Loki looked at me disapprovingly.

"Do not underestimate your opponent- no matter how he looks," he said in warning.

"I'm not- I just realised who it is," I protested, failing to notice that he had noticed us.

"Who are you talking to?" he asked suspiciously, gripping his ball and chain tightly as he regarded us. Loki smirked at me, showing off his superior skills and mockingly bowing at me before walking off to take a seat. "Don't you know who I am girl?"

Girl?! Oh he was so going down.

"Carl Creel," I said in false boredom, although my heart was beginning to race and I could feel my magic flare up in me as it prepared for the no doubt oncoming fight. I was also mentally cursing Loki's name to the high heavens- if this guy could take on Thor then how the hell was I supposed to beat him?! My magic wasn't good and even though I'd absorbed some of the Tesseract's energy the only thing it seemed to be good for in this world was making portals.

"You'd better take your leave girl, you don't want this to turn nasty," he said darkly and I felt, rather than saw my magic steaming from my fist- the same colour as the Tesseract's energy. It threw him off momentarily, giving me a chance to mentally steel myself- and mentally chide myself. The Tesseract didn't just make portals here. It blew stuff up.

He didn't look all that impressive, walking around with only a pair of trousers on and his bald head shaped suspiciously like an egg. He had this look on his face that I would describe as the dumb, muscle-y hire thug rather than the evil mastermind. So had I not known who he was I wouldn't have been intimidated by him and gone all gung-ho. But I did know, so I held back and waited for him to make the first move.

"So you're another one of them wannabe heroes?" he asked, chuckling as reached into the box. "Well you're about to find out that you ain't the only one with powers."

I watched with interest as his body transformed, the grey sheen of iron spreading up his arm and across his whole body. He then picked up his ball and chain and began to swirl it experimentally, sneering at me as he prepared to attack.

"You scared yet?"

"No," I replied, holding up my hand and firing off a blast of my magic. It hit him square on in the chest and sent him flying backwards into the crates behind him. The sudden surge of energy had left my hand feeling as though I'd stuck it in the toaster and I rubbed at it tentatively as I banished the pain. Carl had meanwhile gotten out of the wreckage (Sorry Tony) and began to charge at me, swinging his ball above his head before throwing it in my direction. I quickly dived out of the way, doing a neat roll and ducking behind a nearby crate. I mentally thanked Nat for teaching me that.

"Scared?" sneered the criminal, feeling emboldened by my hiding. He picked up the crate with ease, spotting me crouching behind it and as I began to run backwards he threw it at me.

And watched in disappointment, confusion and anger as I flickered and disappeared.

"Where'd you go?" he snapped, looking around like he expected me to jump out and give away my position.

"I don't remember teaching you that," commented Loki as I sat beside him on the crate. Carl couldn't see us through the magic we'd used to cloak ourselves, and I'm sure he would have pissed to find out how close he got to finding us as he stalked past, trying to find me. "I'm not even sure I should allow it."

"And I'm not even sure that you should be going around giving people powers," I countered. He just smirked, glancing back over to Carl and chuckling lightly.

"Well you obviously know something about him," he said, and looked back to me. "Yet you say your knowledge ended after I was taken back to Asgard. Something that would baffle me had I not seen your old world. Although I will admit that I did not know of him."

"Really?" I asked, although I guess it wasn't that surprising really. "Well I don't actually know that much about him- I only started reading the comics after seeing the film. But I do know that you were the one who gave him his powers."

"So it was already written out that I was to give this mortal his powers," Loki muttered, his face darkening. I had forgotten that this was a touchy issue for him still and tried to amend things.

"Yeah, he gave Thor a lot of trouble," I said in an off-hand kind of manner, which did seem to make him perk up slightly.

He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Carl as he shouted out.

"So you've run off have you coward?" he shouted, and it was my turn to get annoyed.

"Excuse me for a moment," I said to Loki, then dissolved my magic as I hopped onto the nearest crate that wasn't ruined and willed my magic to start flowing again. "You were saying?"

As he turned around to face me, I held out both hands in front of me and fired a blast at him which sent him barrelling backwards again. He was up quicker this time and running towards me instantly, dodging the next blast I sent his way and using his ball to destroy the crate I was standing on. I jumped backwards onto the ground and fired a couple of more blasts- one knocking his ball away from me (luck) the other hitting him 'below the belt' as it were (If only he hadn't been metal).

"So you like to fight dirty do ya?" he snarled, aiming a punch at my face which I dodged with ease and retaliated with a blast that only knocked him a couple of steps backwards.

"I object to that," I said, calmer than I felt, and jumped out of the way has his ball came sailing past again. "I had a bath yesterday."

I tried another double hand blast, but he dodged that and came rushing at me again. Trying to dodge again, I was stopped as I tripped on an oily substance that had formed behind me and fell to the ground. There was a sharp pain through my leg as his ball flew past and I knew now would be a good time to end it or I would be smashed to pieces. So without even thinking I pointed at him, feeling the magic flare up as his fist raced towards my face and then- he was gone.

A blue rush of energy formed around him and then he was gone, leaving Loki and I alone in the warehouse.

"You almost had me worried there," commented the trickster, although he looked nothing of the sort and I just rolled my eyes as I healed my leg. "And to what destination did you send him?"

"I don't know," I replied with a shrug. "It was done more on instinct than anything else."

As I spoke he had made his way over and now offered his hand in order to help me up. I accepted, brushing the debris which now coated my legs off and looking about the warehouse. Most of the crates were now just piles of junk, whatever had been stored in them destroyed and leaking oil all over the place (Something I had noticed a little too late).

"Tony is not going to be happy," I commented, feeling a little guilty- but only a little.

"Indeed," agreed Loki, a smug smile adorning his face. "Shall we head back then."

"Good idea, and when we get there I am going to order some food- I think Chinese today," I said, falling in step with the trickster as we began to exit the warehouse. "What I can't figure out is why there was no security guard."

"What I can't figure out is how that man is a challenge to Thor," countered Loki, seemingly in an attempt to change the subject. "He did not seem so troublesome."

"Not my fault," I said defensively. "Besides, with a supervillain name like his he shouldn't be strong- I mean he sounds like a kitchen roll mascot."

Loki chuckled as we continued out way back, continuing to chat as the sounds of sirens filled the air and a figure watched them from the shadows.

Soon, it though to itself.

**A/N: Huzzah! I actually wrote something! I know I said I was going to edit the other stories but I honestly couldn't be bothered after a while so I decided to do some oneshots.**

**I hope you enjoyed this, and I'm sure a lot of you know who Carl Creel is. ;) I hope you'll leave a review and maybe a few prompts- are there any other characters you'd like to see? **

**Also, feel free to tell me if I got Carl wrong. I have read some comics with him in, but found it difficult to write him and I struggled writing the fights seeing as- as Jess pointed out- he is a hassle for Thor. But I hope you can excuse his fighting if he did seem off seeing as he's only a rookie supervillain here. Please :3**

**Thanks for reading. ^-^**


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